Sports Desk

Coldstream booked their place in the last eight of the SFA South Region Challenge Cup with a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory at Penicuik Athletic on Saturday.

Coldstream took the lead in the 14th minute, Kieran Lee collected a knock down from Buster Briggs in his own half, beat his man and sent an inch perfect through ball into the path of Briggs, the striker held off a challenge from Young to confidently drive the ball past Cordery.

This stirred the league leaders into life and they were soon level, a cross field pass from deep sent Arran Ponton clear on the left and his cut back was steered into the bottom corner by Aaron Somerville.

The Cuikie were on top at this stage and it was no surprise when they took the lead in the 34th minute, again Ponton found space on the left, his cross was helped on by McIntosh to McCrory-Irving who made no mistake from the edge of the box.

Coldstream were looking a little ragged and were fortunate not to go further behind, McIntosh having a goal ruled out for offside and Baptie seeing his drive from distance strike the crossbar, but the Streamers held on to go in 2-1 down at the interval.

Coldstream were more organised at the back in the second half with Max Fox, Ross Straughan and Jack Logan all performing well to shut down the home side’s attacks and cut off the spaces which Penicuik had found before the break, the midfield were all working hard in difficult conditions and were rewarded in the 54th minute, Cordery didn’t get enough distance on his punched clearance, it fell to Shane Bonnington wide on the right who drove a ferocious cross back in, causing Williams to slice into his own net for the equaliser.

Penicuik’s lead was restored with twelve minutes left on the clock, Somerville’s glorious cross from the left found Caddow who finished well from six yards on the volley.

Penicuik had a spell of dominating possession and looked to be heading into the next round but they weren’t prepared for Coldstream’s resilience and refusal to accept defeat, deep into stoppage time a Fox shot forced a corner, Gary Widram’s delivery from the corner found the head of Kris Dixon, his goal bound effort was saved by Cordery but the rebound fell to the feet of substitute Kieran Bullen who smashed the ball into the roof of the net for a last kick equaliser to send the match into extra time.

Substitute Bailey Paterson, making his 50th appearance for the Blues, came close to giving his side the lead in the first period of extra time but his turn and shot in the box saw his effort clear the cross bar.

The second half of extra time was barely a minute old when Penicuik took the lead for the third time, Somerville and McIntosh combining to create space for Caddow to fire home from 18 yards.

Coldstream were finishing the contest looking the more likely to grab the games eighth goal and sure enough it came with five minutes remaining, Lee’s pass from midfield found Bonnington on the left, he did brilliantly to hold off Caddow and get his cross in from the by-line, Cordery couldn’t gather it cleanly and Briggs was on hand to squeeze the ball in at the near post to make the final score 4-4.

The players had to draw on their remaining reserves of energy for the final task of the penalty shoot-out, after five kicks each the scores were still level, Briggs, Dixon, Bonnington and Paterson finding the net while Windram saw his effort strike the post, Penicuik’s McIntosh, Connolly, Jones and Somerville were successful and Baptie’s kick was saved by Walters.

Ejay Gay stepped up to take the sixth Coldstream penalty and the big defender made no mistake, firing into the bottom corner. Caddow’s attempt was then saved by Walters to send the Streamers through to a home quarter final tie with Lowland League leaded East Kilbride.